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Picking up the pieces

With so much effort going into increasing recycling, remanufacturing doesn’t always get the attention it deserves. But are businesses finally ready to pick up the effort and create as-new products from used pieces? Annie Reece finds out

We’ve all heard of the 3Rs: reduce, reuse, recycle – but how many of us know of remanufacturing? Often confused with repair, and sometimes mistaken as plain old manufacturing, this ‘R’ has been gaining prominence amongst advocates of the circular economy, hailed for its ability to reduce strain on resources (whilst saving businesses money) AND provide security to the consumer.

But what exactly is it? According to Ben Walsh, Technical Consultant at the Centre for Remanufacturing and Reuse (CRR) and Senior Consultant at Oakdene Hollins, remanufacturing involves taking a product that has reached the end of its first life, performing a series of steps to bring it back up to ‘as new’ specifications, and providing the product with a warranty to match.

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